Whether you're publishing your first paper or hosting a conference and publishing the proceedings, the CUED library research support staff can help you with the publication process. We look after generating numbers for the CUED technical reports published by the Department, liaise with the teams behind Open Access and Symplectic and can help you make sure your publications are compliant with UK and funder policies.

Academic writing

Academic writing and communication can often seem like a different language. Here are some resources that might help you with your writing:

Academic's Support Kit
by Debbie Epstein; Rebecca Boden; Jane Kenway

Academic Writing
by Stephen Bailey

Communicating in Science
by Vernon Booth

How to Write and Illustrate a Scientific Paper
by Bjorn Gustavii; Björn Gustavii

Open Access is simply making published research results freely available to anyone with an internet connection rather than keeping those results hidden behind a subscription paywall.

Why do it?

Making research articles Open Access is a requirement for most funders and for the Research Excellence Framework, or REF. It also ensures that they are more discoverable, more accessible, and therefore more likely to be cited.

What do I need to do?

The easy way to make your articles Open Access is to upload your accepted manuscripts from your Symplectic Elements home page as soon as they're accepted for publication. The University’s Open Access team will add it to the University Repository for you and advise on any other requirements that might apply.

Ultimately, the decision of where to publish your work is up to you. However, here are some things you might want to think about:

Bibliometrics

You may have heard of the h-index and citation rate. These are just two of many metrics used to calculate the impact of articles, authors and publications. The academic system tends to be weighted in favour of authors who are published in high-impact journals and who have high citation rates. However, reaching the right audience for your work may involve publishing in smaller journals with a more specific focus, or making your work available to the public, both of which allow your work to have different types of impact. These sorts of impact are increasingly considered in evaluation exercises such as the Research Excellence Framework (REF).

Is the journal legitimate?

Fraud in academic publishing has unfortunately become a common occurrence and academics have found themselves paying charges to be published in a journals that don't exist. Before you publish, have a look at the checklist on Think. Check. Submit.

Openness

If making research available for others is important to you, you might think about submitting your work to Open Access journals. To check the open access policies of journals, visit SHERPA/RoMEO or browse the Directory of Open Access Journals.